Dr. Steven Raverty, the marine mammal expert veterinarian pathologist for the province, performed the necropsy. He sent samples away for DNA analysis to determine whether the killer whale was a northern or southern resident. More testing for the young whale’s cause of death will be done with collected samples, and marine researchers hope to find results in the next few weeks.

Sloan said DFO normally gets two or three reports of dead killer whales found in the Pacific region each year.